


A Girl Like You. (A Guy Like Him.)

by Nellsie



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Bisexual Clementine, F/F, Jealousy, Lesbian Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running), Pining, Useless Lesbians, it's not significantly mentioned in the fic but i just needed to specify, mentions of mild trichotillomania, mentions of past Minerva/Violet, this is the most i've tagged anything ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 08:51:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15968924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nellsie/pseuds/Nellsie
Summary: Violet notices things, and those things happen to be Clementine, and a lot of things about Clementine.[vaguely based on rockerchick by lipstick homicide, title ripped directly from there.]





	A Girl Like You. (A Guy Like Him.)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lezz1e](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lezz1e/gifts).



> this tumblr post made me do it: https://lezz1e.tumblr.com/post/177912358754/i-really-want-someone-to-write-a-violentine-fic and i'm very bad at keeping true to fics based on songs so its more a loose basis, but i still tried to keep it there.
> 
> and to any future readers who know the secrets of walking dead canon: this was written before any other episodes aside from done running had come out.

Clementine and Louis have been hanging out, which doesn’t mean anything—why would it mean anything?

Violet only notices it, and Violet notices a lot of things, like how AJ will only stand near Clementine if she’s in the room, and how Clementine always keeps her hands close to herself when she’s idle, as if she’s ready to reach for whatever she she needs whenever she needs to.

“Whatever she needs,” is usually a weapon. Everything is weapons, in the apocalypse.

(“Everything is Weapons, in the Apocalypse,” could totally be an album title, by the way. Violet isn’t especially musical, herself, but if somebody else wanted to use it, that’d be cool. Somebody who wasn’t Louis, of course. He’s not metal enough for it.)

Anyway, Violet notices a lot of stuff. Louis is teaching AJ to play the piano, which is sweet. It’s a little counterproductive, in Violet’s opinion. Who would go to _Louis_ for musical advice? His singing makes her want to tear her hair out, but she’s mostly stopped that. The hair tearing, that is.

(She used to do it a lot. Used to pluck out blonde hair, a strand at a time. It got to a point where she had a thinning hairline at thirteen, and then—

Well, then Marlon told her to stop, and he spent time trying to provide her distractions, and he told others to do the same—but Marlon is dead, now, and he’s dead for good reason. Violet is glad he’s gone. Or, not quite glad, but she knows it had to be done.)

Anyway! Clementine. She and Louis are hanging out, or dating, or almost dating, or something like that. They’re always eyefucking and talking to each other like lovestruck eighth graders and shit. Violet has never witnessed something as grossly teenage. They’re almost as bad as she and Minnie were.

Oh, shit.

Anyway! Anyway. Violet already said _anyway_  but she’s doing again. Anyway.

Louis does this thing where he asks Clementine about any boy who has so much as breathed in her direction, as if the dead didn’t start walking when they were literally fucking eight years old. And, okay, Clementine kind of feels older sometimes, but whatever. At the end of the day, she’s still sixteen, even despite the kid and the proficiency with a machete and the (depressingly) bleak past. All of those things might make Clem seem a little older or more mature or whatever, but at the end of the day she’s just like the rest of them. She’s just like Louis, or Ruby, or Violet. Mostly like Violet.

Which is to say, teenage. They’re all teenagers, even if they’re a little more mature than most.

They’re eating dinner, and Clementine and Louis are talking about the  most nothing possible. It’s small talk, and Violet hangs onto Clem’s every word.

“How was your day?” asks Louis.

Clementine talks while chewing on her food, “Good,” she says, “worked on reading with AJ.”

Louis quips, “At this rate, AJ’s gonna have to start teaching me pretty soon,” and Clementine snorts in response, and Louis doesn’t notice,

(or, Violet assumes he doesn’t, because Louis is physically incapable of being quiet about something he notices.)

but Clementine looks past him, to the table behind them, and the cracks the slightest (most gentle) smile at seeing AJ and Tenn talk amongst themselves, sharing a few sheets of drawing paper.

It makes sense that she and Louis are bonding, Violet supposes. Louis is loudmouthed and annoying and kind of flakey, but he’s personable (though Violet loathes to admit it) and he makes AJ happy, and Clementine seems to do a lot of things to make AJ happy, and to make him safe. Louis is a safe option, if anything.

(Violet bites the inside of her cheek. Not that there are many other options.)

“What about you, Vi?” asks Clementine, and for a few moments Violet just stares at her with confusion, having been lost in her thoughts about Clementine’s love life and Clementine’s kid who isn’t her kid and Clementine’s options. “Your day?”

“Oh,” says Violet, and all of her days are kind of the same. Below average, vaguely terrifying. She settles on, “It was fine.”

“That means ‘it was good’ in Violet,” says Louis, “she’s a chronic downplayer.”

“Eat a dick,” says Violet, and Clementine laughs a bit and covers her mouth. Violet feels the emphatic _oh, shit_ in her chest when she hears it. She assures herself that it’s nothing.

(Clementine is the only girl who really _feels_ like an option to Violet, but Violet isn’t an option to Clementine.

At least, she doesn’t think she’s an option.) 

* * *

Violet and Louis and Clementine sit together and play cards.

Louis asks, “Did you stay with anybody besides Lee?” and Clementine thinks on this, before deciding to give an answer. Violet watches silently, and she wonders what the criteria would be for Clementine to trust them with  _everything,_  rather than just the highlights.

“Kenny,” says Clementine, “he was Lee’s friend when I was little, and we met again a couple years after Lee died.”

Louis nods, and there’s the underlying implication of Lee’s death, and Clementine’s involvement. Louis briefly touches Clementine’s hand, and Violet can feel the spike of jealousy and the immediate  _why should I care?_  in her gut. It subsides when Clementine pulls her hand back, shaking her head.

“It’s okay, Kenny was,” she pauses, trying to think.

“Complicated?” tries Louis.

“An asshole,” says Clementine, “but he wasn’t always, I guess. I have good memories with him. So yeah, complicated.”

They do another round of cards, and Clementine gets the highest. She says to Violet, “Were you and Minerva together?” very bluntly. Violet bites the inside of her cheek, and habits like these suck ass, because she immediately cuts herself on her teeth. Shit.

“Yeah,” she says, trying to be casual. It’s hard.

Clementine says, “I noticed the carving in the fishing shack,” and she pauses, “I’m sorry if that was rude, I just, you know, wondered.”

_Wondered._  Yeah, right. Clementine saw it and thought about the pitiful quiet girl with the (presumed) dead girlfriend, and thought to ask about it. Violet tries to rationalize it, that way. Tries to be antagonistic, but she can’t, because she knows that, if anything, Clementine is honest.

Silence hangs in the air, and for a second, Violet meets Clementine’s brown eyes, and she immediately turns her gaze back to the table. This is so fucking dumb. Violet shouldn’t have a fucking  _crush_ on a girl at the end of the damn world—especially not after every horror story she’s learned from Clementine. She was barely good at having crushes on girls  _before_ everything went to shit.

She could never talk to them, or really admit to herself that she liked them. Not until she and Minnie managed to get past their (innumerable) issues, and even then, that happened after the walkers.

(Before Marlon, though. Before Marlon and his shitty decisions.)

Cards ends with Louis winning the last round, and asking the both of them if they’d like to start a band. “Think about it, me and AJ on piano, you guys on vocals, and Aasim on the triangle or something, it’d be a dream,” and it’s meant to be a joke. A very stupid joke, but Violet still rips into it.

“Yeah, a band. Our whole audience could be the walkers, who will come in droves after hearing all the fucking noise,” she snorts.

Clementine says, “Violet does have a point,” and Louis dramatically mimes being wounded.

“Brutal,” he says, “I see my artistic genius goes unappreciated, here.”

Violet and Clementine share a look, and Violet looks back at the table. Christ.

* * *

What, exactly, does Violet like about Clementine?

There’s the obvious answer, which is that Clementine is a girl, and Violet likes girls. Specifically, Violet likes girls who haven’t been breathing down her neck for years (i.e. Ruby) and girls who haven’t been mourning her (presumed) dead girlfriend for the past few years. So Clementine fits the bill, in that regard.

But that’s obvious, and it isn’t entirely correct, because Clementine is composed of a lot of qualities that Violet likes in a girl. She’s honest, kind of (very) badass, funny, and devoted. She’s kind of everything Violet wants in a girl. She’s like, okay, don’t laugh.

When Violet was a kid, she used to read a lot. Specifically, she read a lot of these dystopian books a few notches above her grade level. Clementine, with her quirks and tragic backstory, is kind of like one of those absurdly powerful teenage protagonists, which is  _extremely_ attractive. Clementine is a fierce protector of the things that are important in her life (AJ) and basically the coolest person Violet has met in a very long time. She’s essentially an edgy lesbian’s dream girl. And Violet is, somewhat regrettably, and edgy lesbian.

(The edgy part is regrettable, not the lesbian part. The lesbian part is great, because she can only imagine how tragic it is to actually be attracted to the gross boys they are surrounded with. She once saw Mitch and Willy attempt to see who could spit the furthest.

And, okay, that’s a bad example, because Violet actively watched and bet on Willy—who proceeded to win—but still.)

And the jealousy—oh, the jealousy is ugly. Violet doesn’t like being jealous, though she so often is. It’s painful to be jealous. It’s painful to be jealous of what  _Louis_ has, of all people. And Louis has a lot of things Violet doesn’t. Charisma and a loud sense of humor and some (questionable) talent.

And Clementine isn’t something Louis _has_ —she’s someone Violet  _wants,_ which in Violet’s envious—ironically green—eyes, is basically the same thing.

In the logical part of her mind, Violet knows that Louis is her friend, and whatever involvement he has with Clementine is something he’s allowed to have. After all, everything is difficult and everyone should be allowed the slightest thing to remove themselves from the literal fucking apocalypse.

But Violet is emotional. She is emotional and her emotions are awful and  _jealous,_  goddammit! And it sucks. It sucks to think about and to try and rationalize. It just fucking sucks.

And Violet knows this, but at one point Clementine hands her a snack and their hands briefly touch and it’s the dumbest shit but it feels like a goddamn benediction.

(And Violet is convinced that she imagined this, but it’s almost like Clementine stops a bit, too.)

Fuck this. 

* * *

In another world, the walkers aren’t a thing.

Violet thinks about this while she lies in bed, staring at the ceiling. It’s hard not to think about how monumentally fucked their situation is, and it’s comparatively easy to get caught up in what never happened.

In that world, Violet is still sent to Ericson’s, but maybe she manages to finally make some friends after the first year, and maybe those friends have better fates than they do here.

Of course, she and Minerva would be together—there would be nothing keeping them apart. No walkers, no raiders, no Marlon. They would be together, and happy, and Minnie would write songs dedicated to Violet, and maybe Violet would pick up a hobby. Something complimentary, like the guitar.

And though Violet gets the sense that Clementine before the walkers wasn’t exactly Ericson material, maybe she would do something to become Ericson material. Maybe she and Louis would have a future in the world that never happened, and they would team up with Violet and Minnie to make Louis’s inane band idea happen. Maybe it’d actually be fun, in this world.

(And AJ would have to be there. Maybe Clementine would be his babysitter, or his tutor, or something like that. Violet doesn’t know, but he would be there. He’d have to be.)

Violet can’t help herself with these fantasies—what if she and Minnie _weren’t_ together, in that world, and she instead got to know Clementine?

Clementine would maybe be impressed with Violet—she might think she was cool and interesting and maybe she would forgive her idiosyncrasies (the hair pulling and the anxiety and the quietness) and maybe they would become something more.

Though, really, it would be the opposite. Violet knows it with her very soul. She would be absolutely  _enamored_  with Clementine—and she knows that Clem would be different, in that world, but Violet can’t imagine her being so different that it would alter her feelings, at least, not by much—and she would tiptoe around it and she would convince herself out of it and she would be so unbearably shy about it.

(Like with Minnie.)

And she would be so needlessly jealous of Clementine and Louis.

(Like she is now, in this reality, which is actually happening.)

_Shit,_  thinks Violet,  _fantasies blow._  

* * *

In this world, Violet and Clementine spend a bit of time together. Whether it be fishing, or (begrudgingly) hunting, or just hanging out, they spend time together.

And Violet spends too much time looking at Clementine, and indulging in her own (ill-advised, unrequited) crush.

One day, sitting beside her in the fishing shack, Violet thinks the very brave and honorable thought of  _fuck it! Who cares?_  and asks Clementine, “What’s going on with you and Louis?”

To which Clementine responds, “I don’t know?”

Violet’s eyebrows furrow, and suddenly it feels like Clementine is dauntingly close. “You don’t know?”

Clementine shrugs, “I think he’s interested? Or however you’re supposed to say that, but,” she stops to think about it, “Louis is nice, and really, really fun and all—”

Oh, God. Violet is going to have to hear a girl she has an awful crush on talk about an awful crush on a boy. Christ, just kill her now.

“But I don’t really know if I feel the same,” she finishes.

_Oh._ Oh.

“I see,” says Violet, and she wonders if she can slip in an, _on an unrelated note, are you interested in girls?_ but that’s way out of line, and Violet has kind of hit her boldness quota for the day.

Still, they do meet eyes again, and for one-tenth of a second there is something that flashes in Clementine’s.

(And they kiss.)

They kiss! and it’s awkward and clumsy and absolutely the kind of thing that happens between someone who has never kissed anyone (Clementine) and someone who hasn’t kissed in years (Violet) and it’s nice and confusing and basically every adjective in the dictionary that could be used to describe a kiss, including “good” and “awful” and “perfect.” Violet shuts her eyes as tightly as possible and hopes to God that she doesn’t wake up if this is a dream.

And when she opens her eyes, Clementine is still there (though she is a bit red in the face, fumbling) and it’s fucking awesome.

For the rest of their time, she and Clementine talk about things that are much more innocuous, like a potential revamping of the greenhouse and maybe procuring more art supplies for Tenn and AJ, should the situation arise, but—

Violet can only think about Clementine, and how she doesn’t really know if she feels the same about Louis. And Clementine, and her brown eyes and curly hair and her (very freshly kissed) mouth.

_Shit,_  she thinks.

**Author's Note:**

> i had a whole argument with a friend over whether or not clementine would (after further thought) consider kenny an asshole and i feel like yeah she would. especially in this worldstate. (spoiler, she killed him.)
> 
> other notes: let the record show i really like louis.


End file.
